Biodiversity and medicine News

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Herders cross the Lungasamba pass with their yaks. Image by Chyamtang-Kathmandu Welfare Society.

Nepal Indigenous leaders refile writ petition against hydropower project

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 12 Dec 2025
Rainforest in northern Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Endangered knowledge and endangered plants: Threats to Indigenous medicinal traditions in Borneo

Cassidy Beach 1 Dec 2025
Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin.

Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)

Mark J. Plotkin 17 Nov 2025
Community people in Jhumlabang gathered in a community meeting in July. Image courtesy of Jhumlabang Village Foundation (JVF).

In Nepal’s hills, a fight brews over the country’s biggest iron deposit

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 17 Oct 2025
Ampalaya, or bitter gourd (Momordica charantia)

Filipino communities use vast variety of endemic plants for health: Study

Keith Anthony Fabro 12 Aug 2025
Long-tailed macaques being held at Sookvannaseng Integrated's breeding farm in Bolikhamsai province, Laos. Image supplied by source.

Data discrepancies suggest Laos monkey smuggling persists, despite trade ban

Gerald Flynn 23 Apr 2025
An endangered long-tailed macaque peeks out from a cage having been exported from Vietnam to Europe. Image supplied by Animal Rights BE.

Report alleges criminality in Cambodian, Vietnamese monkey trade

Gerald Flynn 21 Apr 2025
Banner image of a rainforest in Borneo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Science aside, we need art & philosophy for global change: Epidemiologist

Mongabay.com 14 Feb 2025
A black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) feeding on a palm tree in Brisbane, Australia.

Declining biodiversity and emerging diseases are entwined, more study needed

Ruth Kamnitzer 12 Feb 2025
Banner image of a coral reef in Indonesia by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

New ‘Cali Fund’ plans to make companies pay for benefiting from nature

Kristine Sabillo 12 Nov 2024
Santa Marta's traditional medicine doctors Mauricio Martínez, Elicia Martínez and Viviana Montero stand among a plot of land containing curative plants.

The Panamanian shamans working to save their ancestral medicinal plants

Adam D. Williams 22 Oct 2024
Two young gorillas play in Gabon. Experts say humans' and gorillas' shared used of medicinal plants highlights the interconnectedness between humans and other apes. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Indigenous knowledge proves key in a study of plants gorillas use to self-medicate

Charles Mpaka 3 Oct 2024
argeting demand for rhino horn-based products must complement efforts to protect rhinos from poaching. Image by Geranimo via Unsplash.

As a medicine, study finds rhino horn useless — and potentially toxic

Juliette Portala 3 Sep 2024
From left: Florinda Zurdo, Silvia Salina and Patricia Mendoza stand in a plot of land near ASASTRAN’s site in Lajero where traditional medicine is cultivated.

Indigenous midwives in Panama strive to preserve traditional medicine for maternal health

Adam D. Williams 25 Jul 2024
Juanita Torremocha harvests a medicinal herb in her backyard, located near Mount Bandilaan National Park at the heart of Siquijor Island.

Traditional healers in Philippines keep their ‘forest pharmacy’ standing

Keith Anthony Fabro 9 Feb 2024
Since 2014, Nerea Turreira-Garcia and Dimitris Argyriou have worked with Indigenous communities in Cambodia's Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary to identify species of flora and their uses to the communities. Image by Nerea Turreira-Garcia and Dimitris Argyriou.

‘Immense body of knowledge’ at stake in Cambodia’s Prey Lang as deforestation soars

Gerald Flynn 13 Dec 2023
Chörtens right outside the walled city of Lo Manthang. Image by Jean-Marie Hullot via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 Deed).

Traditional healers push for recognition and licensing of age-old Himalayan practice

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Dec 2023
Amanita muscaria is a mushroom that is both hallucinogenic and poisonous. Image posted by creator 942784 to the Creative Commons via Pixabay.

‘A psychedelic renaissance’: How hallucinogens can aid conservation

Mike DiGirolamo 20 Jun 2023
Long-tailed macaques roam free across the Angkor Wat temple complex

Alleged macaque-smuggling ring exposed as U.S. indicts Cambodian officials

Gerald Flynn 18 Nov 2022

Protecting Brazil’s Amazon could be a bargain — if the government were willing to pay

Lais Modelli 4 Jul 2022
Yadi, a member of the Menapo House

Saving medicinal plants a village cause in Indonesia

Warief Djajanto Basorie, Yitno Suprapto 26 May 2022
Mark Plotkin with an Embera shaman in the Darien on the Colombia-Panama. Photo credit: Amazon Conservation Team

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin: Indigenous knowledge serves as a ‘connective tissue’ between nature and human well-being

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Jan 2022

Indonesian research center for medicinal plants displaces incense harvesters

Barita News Lumbanbatu 13 Jan 2022
Melanesia tropical fruits

Between land and sea: Agrobiodiversity holds key to health for Melanesian tribes

Carolyn Cowan 6 Dec 2021
Medicinal garden

Study confirms anti-inflammatory property of traditional Samoan remedy

Stephanie Melchor 19 Nov 2021
Endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes). Image courtesy of Kimberly Fraser/USFWS.

Black-footed ferrets riding out COVID-19 with a vaccine and a lot of TLC

Rachel Fritts 27 Sep 2021

Not just for humans — scientists turn to vaccines to save endangered species

Gloria Dickie 20 Aug 2021

Climate change threatens to squeeze out Indonesia’s medicinal plants

Basten Gokkon 18 Aug 2021

Traditional healers are preserving their knowledge, and with it, the biodiversity of Brazil’s savanna

Sarah Sax 12 Mar 2021

An economic case for competing in the XPRIZE Rainforest contest (commentary)

Jonah Wittkamper 1 Mar 2021
Rainbow over the Colombian Amazon. Photo © Wade Davis

Colombia, ethnobotany, and America’s decline: An interview with Wade Davis

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Oct 2020

A Philippine tribe’s plant-based medical tradition gets its moment

Bong S. Sarmiento 2 Oct 2020

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